WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, said Tuesday he will vote against confirming Judge Michael Mukasey as the next attorney general.

In a statement released by the presidential candidate's Senate office, Obama strongly criticized Mukasey's performance during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"His testimony before the Senate was stunning," Obama said in the statement. “While his legal credentials are strong, his views on two critical and related matters are, in my view, disqualifying.

"We don't need another attorney general who believes that the president enjoys an unwritten right to secretly ignore any law or abridge our constitutional freedoms simply by invoking national security," Obama continued. "And we don't need another attorney general who looks the other way on issues as profound as torture."

soundoff(26 Responses)

Why did he not oppose the additional bill that singled out Moveon.org for condemnation after the congress passed a main bill condemning all attacks on patriotic americans? He was in the senate and ducked the vote. He was the only senator to abstain from voting. Today he wants to oppose Mukasey because the guy said he needs to look at the methods to decide if it is torture or not, even after he had said he opposed torture and will resign it is ever used under his watch. This intolerance of other people's view must stop. Obama should face other serious issues of our time and tell us what he will do if Iran should insist on getting nuclear weapon. He has not answered this question and he wants Mukasey to answer about torture when he has said he will look at the methods and answer specifically if it falls under torture. Personally i believe waterboarding is a form of torture and should not be used by our country. Obama should answer what he will do if Iran insist on forging forward with their nuclear weapon ambition. All these politicians will not answer a single serious question and they stupidly talk about others. This is a senator, who had a consistent pattern of dodging any serious vote while in Illinois senate and continued the streak till today, and he has the audacity to talk nonsense about Mukasey who is a moderate, distinguished legal luminary with impeccable resume.